Garden City Budget News
By Roy S. Ryniker and Bob Sundius

A comprehensive analysis of the Village's $55 million budget must include two perspectives:

* Are the desired level of services being delivered in a cost effective manner; and

* What are the desired service levels if residents were fully informed of their costs?

The Fire Department's $6 million annual budget is one budget that residents need to examine in greater detail.

Background: The Village has a combination fire department - a paid staff (35 full-time firefighters) supported by 110 volunteer firemen. Garden City and Long Beach are the only two municipalities in Nassau County that have a combination fire department. All others are strictly staffed by volunteers. In fact, 95% all residents in Nassau County are protected exclusively by a volunteer fire department. Garden City, with three fire houses all staffed by paid firefighters 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is the only municipality in Nassau County that has more than one fire house manned by paid firefighters.

Activity: Annually, the Fire Department has 4 to 8 serious fire per year plus approximately 100 other fire related instances. In addition, they respond to approximately 200 hazardous conditions where there is no fire and also other calls involving water, smoke and weather conditions. The Fire Department last year also went on 601 false alarms and false calls. Residents also call the Fire Department for numerous other instances, some threatening, others for convenience (lock-outs, animal problem). The paid firefighters get the equipment to the fire location whereas the volunteers often go directly to the fire site.

Observations:

* Residents of Rockville Centre, Manhasset and every municipality in Nassau County except Long Beach are protected by an all volunteer Fire Departments.

* Long Beach has only one fire house manned by paid firefighters with the other two fire houses staffed by volunteers.

* Garden City and each surrounding community rely upon "mutual aid" arrangements for back-up and auxiliary resources.

* Garden City residents pay approximately $5 million annually above the cost of an all volunteer department. That's a considerable amount of insurance. Why don't other communities consider it necessary?

Cost: The Fire Department's annual budget is $6 million, of which $4.9 million is for labor costs. The average annual compensation for the paid firefighters is $136,000. This includes salary/wages, overtime, holiday and shift differentials and employee benefits. A paid firefighter after five years of service is entitled to 52 paid days off per year (28 vacation days, 12 holidays, and 12 sick days that can be taken as personal days).

Suggestion: Residents should ask the Board of Trustees to retain a consultant with expertise in fire department staffing requirements to assess the Village's Fire Department needs and develop alternatives. This Consultant and the Village Trustees would then be in the informed position to provide residents with an objective rationale supporting the benefits and costs of alternative approaches to protecting residents.

The four Property Owners Associations have authorized the Garden City Citizens Budget Review Committee. Roy S. Ryniker is President of the Reorganization Alternatives Group, Ltd. and Chairman of the Garden City Citizens' Budget Review Committee (Roy.Ryniker@ReAltGroup.com). Bob Sundius is a corporate executive and financial advisor for middle markcompanies (rwsundius@interim-exec-mgmt.com).